Final - Reflection

I enjoyed looking over and everyone's work. I think this was a great class and I learned a lot. I have been wanting to create my own blog for for sometime now, but needed to get over the learning curve to really get started. This class made me more comfortable with learning new technology and I'm already thinking about starting a new blog using WordPress.

Overall, the results that I got from survey monkey were good. Over 90% of those surveyed rated my site good or great for all 4 categories. Almost everyone wrote a comment and all the comments were positive. Some of the comments were: "strong lesson plan", "I approve", "Really clear, well laid out lesson", "good, developmentally-appropriate use of technology for a great science lesson","I like the idea that they can drag and drop the parts of the bee!", "I really like how you incorporated technology for such a young age group!", and "I enjoyed reading your lesson plan."

A few comments also had suggestions to improve various aspects of my blog. Some of the comments were: "to add back and forward links to the final project pages", "add more images", "content instruction page was out of sequential order", "would have been nice to have links to everything", "you did not have a menu link and forward link on each of the component page", and "just a tip, use Rubistar.com to make a rubric for your lesson."

I agreed with most of the suggestions and went through and made most of the changes. I'm really happy with the way my blog is looking for now and those changes were not that hard to do. Just those little touches really made my blog more user friendly and fun to look at!

There was several questions in the comment section that I would like to answer. The first one was: "Do you have computers in the classroom? Are the students working on the computers in pairs, and can they use the computer?" The classroom I was picturing has 4 computers and so yes students would work in pairs or 2 or 3 to type their facts into GoogleDocs. I left that part a little vague in my lesson plan because I don't have a permanent classroom yet and wanted to leave some flexibility there. The other question was: "Good use of technology, but what would you do if you didn't have a Smartboard?" If I didn't have a Smartboard then I would have to completely change the lesson. I would probably have students create a power point in the computer lab about the bee body parts and the bee life cycle.

Thank you for a great class!

-Jen

Final

Bee Body and Bee Life Cycle

This lesson plan is for 2nd grade students studying characteristics of insects and their life cycles. The objective is to learn that bees, like all insects, have 3 main body parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen and a 4 stage life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Students will be guided through a Powerpoint lesson and watch a video on the bee life cycle before breaking into groups and rotating though 4 stations to learn more about bees. Students will use the classroom computers, google docs, and the Smartboard. Groups will also use the Smartboard to share their work with the class.

Please click on the links below to review my final project. After reviewing please also complete the evaluation survey.

Content Standards
Content Instruction
Lesson Structure
Rubric/Assessment of Student Performance
Technology
Evaluation SURVEY

Thank you!
-JEN PARSONS

Final - Content Standards

Students will learn that bees (like all insects) have 3 body parts and that the life cycle of a bee has 4 stages; egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

Life Science Standard 2: Plants and animals have predictable life cycles. As a basis for understanding this concept:

a. Students know that organisms reproduce offspring of their own kind and that the offspring resemble their parents and one another.

b. Students know the sequential stages of life cycles are different for different animals, such as butterflies, frogs, and mice.

c. Students know many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents. Some characteristics are caused or influenced by the environment.

d. Students know there is variation among individuals of one kind within a population.

Technology Standard:

Use technology tools, to learn new content or reinforce skills.

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Next-Content Instruction

Final - Content Instruction

Objective: Students will learn that bees have 3 body parts and that the bee life cycle has 4 stages; egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

Academic Language: head, thorax, abdomen, life cycle, egg, larva, pupa, adult, and honeycomb

The lesson will begin with a Bee PowerPoint presentation using the Smartboard. Students will learn about the bee family, where bees live, characteristics of bees, and the bee life cycle using pictures and part of a youtube video about the bee life cycle.

The next part of the lesson will be to break students up into 4 groups to rotate through 4 different stations.

Station 1: Students will use the classroom computers to read several already chosen websites about bees and type interesting facts about bees into an already set-up google document. Explain to students that each group will add facts to the same document that is stored on the internet and can be opened and displayed on the Smartboard to share with the whole class during group sharing time at the end of the lesson.

Station 2: Students will draw a bee together on a large poster on the back table. The bee must show 3 main parts and each part must be labeled.

Station 3: Students will quietly watch a Hila Science Video about the Bee Life Cycle and a short video how bees communicate video using the classroom T.V. and VCR.

Station 4: Teacher monitors as students use the Smartboard to choose the correct pictures for the bee life cycle. Then students put the pictures in the correct order and lastly, students match the pictures to the correct name of each stage. Teacher has students vote where the life cycle takes place- choices are a leaf, honeycomb, under a rock, in a flower.

At the end of the lesson, the teacher will display the google docs document with all the interesting facts from each group on the Smartboard and call groups up to the front of the room to show their bee poster, share their facts, and share their bee life cycle diagram. The teacher will lead the rest of the class to check to make sure each group has created and labeled a bee with 3 main parts and a labeled bee life cycle with 4 stages. Once all groups have shared the teacher displays the survey about where the bee life cycle takes place and adds up the votes and give students the answer.

After listening to the lesson, watching the video, rotating through the 4 stations, and sharing--- students will have had several opportunities to learn the main body parts of a bee and the bee life cycle.

The next day each student will be given a formal performance assessment asking them to draw and label the 3 main body parts of a bee and draw and label the stages of the bee life cycle to see if they remembered what they learned the previous day.


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Final - Lesson Structure

The goal is to allow students to learn about bees using the classroom computers, google docs, and the Smartboard.

This lesson is designed to take a total of 2 hours. About 30 minutes for the lesson, 1 hour for groups to rotate through four stations (15 minutes at each station) and about 30 minutes for group sharing and closure.

1. The teacher conducts a PowerPoint lesson and shows a short 2 minute bee video using the Smartboard.

2. Students get into small groups of 5-6 students and rotate through 4 stations using their desks, the t.v./vcr, the classroom computers/google docs and the Smartboard to learn more about bees.

3. Students share what they learned using the Smartboard and receive feedback from the teacher and other groups.

4. Students are informally assessed when sharing with their group and formally assessed by independently taking a bee quiz the next day that asks them to draw and label the 3 parts of a bee and the 4 life cycle stages.

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Final - Assessment

Assessment of Student Performance

Students will be informally assessed when they present their work to the class using the Smartboard.

Station 1/Bee facts: Students must have an appropriate number of interesting facts for their group and time. At least 1 fact per number of group members.

Station 2/Video: Students will be not be assessed watching the video.

Station 3/Life Cycle Stages: Students must show have put the 4 stages of the bee life cycle in the correct order and labeled each stage correctly: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

Station 4/bee body: Students must create a bee with a body that has 3 main parts and labeled head, thorax, and abdomen.

See Rubric for Station 3 and 4

The technology standards will be informally assessed by observing if students can type facts into a google document and if they can use the Smartboard to match the bee life cycle and its correct vocabulary.

The next day students will be assessed with a bee quiz asking them to draw and label the 3 main parts of a bee and the 4 life cycle stages.

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Next-Technology

Final - Technology

The teacher uses technology with this lesson by using the Smartboard to show a PowerPoint presentation and video. The students use technology by using the computers, google docs and the Smartboard to show what they have learned.

Students will collaborate together to read and write interesting facts about bees using the classroom computers and google docs. Students will use the Smartboard to work together to put the 4 stages of the bee life cycle together and match a label to each stage. Finally, students will use the Smartboard to share what they learned with the class.

The technology utilized will greatly enhance the project by allowing students collaborate, engage with technology, and have fun while learning about bees.


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Final - Survey Monkey

Click here to take survey

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Youtube Video bzzzzzzz!

My intent for this video would be in conjunction with a 2nd grade lesson on the body parts of a bee (insects) and the bee life cycle. This video is 9 minutes long and parts of it are slow and boring so I would fast forward and only use the portion of it (minutes 2:15-4:18) which shows an actual time lapsed video of a bee life cycle from egg, larva, pupa, and adult. This tool addresses the teaching standard: facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity by showing a visual of an actual bee life cycle and will engage students better than using still pictures.

Google Docs and Collaboration

I can think of many ways google docs can foster collaboration. For example, between classmates and colleagues google docs can be a way to share lesson ideas and lesson plans. It can also foster a way to edit classmates and colleagues work.

As an instructor, I think google docs can be a valuable way to have students work on group projects. Not only will students learn how to cooperate together as a group, they learn how to publish something together, and have their work displayed on the internet for any one to see. I think students will be excited to think their work might be used by someone else.

Google docs addresses the teaching standard: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments by using and encouraging your students to become comfortable working collaboratively on cloud based projects.

Below is a link to a published google doc that I created for a classmate and I to work collaboratively on an assessment project.

PowerPoint bzzzzzz!

This power point will facilitate my lesson on the body parts of a bee (insects) and the bee life cycle by allowing me to show pictures and details of bees. Students will be engaged and can come up and point to the parts of the bee and stages of the bee life cycle.

This tool also addresses the teaching standard: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity by engaging students on a deeper level than just looking at a book or a white board drawing of a bee. Seeing real pictures and colorful information about bees will engage students and make my lesson more interesting and interactive. Further, by using PowerPoint, I can share this lesson with teachers who have or do not have a Smartboard and they can use it for their classes. If this presentation was created only with Smartboard software many teachers would not be able to use it at this time.

Bee Powerpoint

Technology Terminology

It will be increasingly more important to know and understand basic technology terms in order to keep up with rapid technology growth. These basic terms will build on future technology terms and if you don't stay up with what these words mean it will become harder and harder to understand the technology of the future.

I thought the video Web 2.0 was interesting. The video compared web 1.0 to "information silos" and explained that web 2.0 function is an open communication forum. The video explained that web 2.0 is an advertisers paradise. Mainly because it allows websites and computers to interact with each other and collect data about its users giving advertisers valuable knowledge about their target market. However, for us, the web users, web 2.0 allows for more collaboration with each other and the things that interest us. For example, google maps, flicker, delicious, digg, and tecnorati were mentioned as successful web 2.0 sites or services. All of these examples move us away from a static website to a more dynamic world wide web.

Important Technology Terminology:

aggregation- using multiple cables or networks to connect systems
avatar- visual representation of a person in a virtual world
blog- informal web log
cache-stores data to help find future requests
captcha-crazy numbers and letters websites use to validate you are human
cloud computing- storing information on the internet instead of on one machine or hard drive
digg-social news website
hash tag- short messages to help searchabiltiy
HTML- internet language
podcast, webcast- audio or visual shows that are displayed on the internet
tags-idex terms assigned to a piece of information or picture
tweet- messages sent on the social messaging tool twitter
Web 2.0- websites that allow for sharing and collaboration rather than just visiting/reading.
wiki- an example of web 2.0. a website designed to allow people to collaborate and update
source code- text written in computer programming terminology

Social Networking in the Classroom

Social Networking does offer a way to engage with teachers, parents, and students, however, I don't think there is a place for it at this time in an educational setting K-12. As mentioned in class, it can serve as a tool to post notes, assignments, display work, share pictures from class and field trips, but it can also breed inappropriate relationships or unfair biases. With that said, there are always exceptions. If a teacher thinks social networking sites are the only or best way to reach their community, then I think they should use that media. However, I would encourage any teacher who chooses facebook over a blog or traditional website to use a facebook page designed for class only and not intermix it with too much personal information. I would strongly caution teachers against using social networking sites as a tool to "friend" students. When I was a snotty teenager, I ask my mom why she couldn't be my friend like my friend's mom was to her. She responded with "because I'm not your friend, I'm your mother." I didn't understand her at the time, but she was right. She wasn't my friend and she shouldn't have been. I didn't have the emotional capacity or maturity to be her friend at that time. I think the teacher-student relationship should be similar. Children, as well as, students should not feel they are equals with their parents and teachers. I think as a teacher or student you need to evaluate and assess each other with some emotional distance. If you are "friends", I think it's hard not to have bias towards each other that would effect your evaluation of each other. In the case of a teacher if might also effect your evaluation of other students. Further, if a student thinks they are "friends" with their teacher and then receive a low grade from them they might take it more personally than they would have if they only thought of their teacher as their teacher.  Not to mention, social networking sites might allow students access to a teachers' personal life that could effect relationships with other students, parents, and/or the school. It human nature to make judgements about other people based on their likes or dislikes, something we disclose to people as we get to know them and feel comfortable sharing. If all becomes visible for someone who doesn't really know you well it could lead to unfair bias about your teaching ability. Some teachers might be totally comfortable with their private life becoming public, but I think most do not and others would soon find that they also do not like their private life becoming public. Overall, I would use facebook or other social networking sites with caution at this time.

RSS Feeds

This was my first time to set up my RSS feed and I love it! I knew this feature existed, but hadn't taken the time to set it up yet and I'm glad I finally did! This will be a great way for me to keep up with the latest postings about things that interest me: news (cnn), weather (weather.com), gardening (urban chickens and organic gardening), teaching (teachertube and Laura Candler), decorating (apartment therapy), movies (internet movie database), and friend's blogs (photography and crafting) I continually intend to check.....but don't always get around to it. I think the RSS feature will also be useful in the classroom allowing me to keep up with sites and blogs that interest my students. Further, I can use the smartboard to display updates that are relevant to my lessons and/or our lives giving me alternative ways to connect with my students and make class more interesting. 

The RSS feed tool can encourage my professional growth and leadership by connecting me to different educators and professional sites and/or blogs. Lastly, the RSS feed can help me stay connected to things that I'm interested in outside of teaching and reduce stress.  

Future of Now

"Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0" explained that Web 1.0 gave us information, and Web 2.0 created interaction with its users (i.e. such as sites as youtube, wikipedia, myspace, facebook, and linkin). They also introduced the extension of Web 2.0 - Web 3.0.  This new web system is already successfully being used by companies such as Amazon, LastFM, and Pandora and will allow the computer systems themselves to interact with each other. Although this convenience will meet our individual needs in an exciting way, I think it will be important to teach students how this system works so that they can ensure that it meets their individual needs accurately. The video also alluded to what implication this will have for society or rather what people will do when everything becomes automated. I think future generations will continue to be creative job creators, however, I have to wonder if all this technology will really give us the free time they anticipate? As more technology is introduced, I'm finding that we are actually expected to accomplish more in less time, not the other way around. I think it will be important for educators to teach students how to use technology and also how to turn off or "tune out" so that they have balance in their lives.
The "Students Today" video reminded me that students have shifted away from reading traditional books and spend more time reading websites and even more time on social networking sites. I wasn't so surprised by the website use because most of us use the web more than books today. However, I was surprised at how much time students spent on social networking sites! 
The end of this video pointed out that this generation did not create the problems of today. Doesn't every generation says that? I don't think that war, ethnic conflict, hunger, etc. are new, but rather the internet and other medias have increased our awareness of them. This awareness and connectedness gives all of us a voice and the tools that will hopefully help us collaborate to solve many of these problems. As a teacher, I realize that it will be important to incorporate multiple medias to engage my students and encourage them to use multiple media in responsible ways.
The "Did You Know" video suggested that with population growth, education (and I believe work ethic) the U.S. will soon be surpassed by either India or China as the world's superpower. The video also reminded us that technology is growing exponentially. While I do agree, I can't imagine a computer ever exceeding the capabilities of the human brain. I know there are computers with more memory and processing speeds that the human brain, but I believe there are intangibles that a computer will never be able to truly mimic. While it's true that computers will be able to solve many problems, they won't be able to use emotions to make important life decisions. Overall, I think the video does raise an important question----will our students be literate in the 21st century? I think the fact that we have to ask the question gives us the answer.
Web 4.0 explained that the media landscape will be altered and will change the way people behave. They suggested that with this exponential convergence a larger audience can be reached, but it will be harder to really connect on a deep level. I see evidence of this already. Teens spend so much time "socializing" on social media sites and text messaging that they have lost some of their face-to-face interpersonal skills. What provides you with more meaning and satisfaction---going to coffee with one true friend or Facebooking with 300?  I think this trend will continue until it gets so bad that the pendulum swings, and people start preferring more face-to-face interaction again, much like the food revolution has encouraged a resurgence in the quality food versus empty calories. As a teacher, I think it will be my job to encourage technology and traditional interaction as well.

I think the future of technology offers great opportunities to reduce illiteracy, hunger, and poverty. However, with this opportunity students need to understand that as the world becomes more flat and equal they will be competing globally and will need to work harder for what they want.

The Conditions

The conditions for effective technology learning make sense to me. However, many of the schools where I currently work (substitute and student teach) do not meet these conditions. There seems to be a shared vision for an increase in technology engagement, however, there is not enough monetary resources to create access for all teachers and students. Some classrooms have Smartboards and some do not. Some computer labs are fully functioning and some are not. In most cases, there seems to be a lack of tech support- often computers aren't working and can take days or weeks to be fixed. On the other hand, more affluent schools have Smartboards in every classroom and tech support to fix the computer lab computers in a timely manner. I think the vision is there among all the schools, but overall there is a lack of resources. I think all the conditions are interconnected and equally important. With that said, there is one condition that needs to be met before the rest---- consistent and adequate funding. Funding needs to be consistent because technology is ever changing and adequate because if it's not enough if doesn't equitably reach and prepare all students for the future. Funding will determine if teachers HAVE and Can USE technology in the classroom and that ultimately effects whether technology becomes equitable and and useful for all students.

1st post!

This is my first post. Not great with technology, but looking forward to figuring it out!